Jay: Hi, my name is Jay Shewan with Wacek & Associates and I’m the firm manager and we serve people globally with U.S. and expat-based taxes. We have a small group of people that are located remotely around the world, whether that’s in Colorado, North Carolina, Virginia or Indonesia that work on our Global team and we use BigTime.
BigTime: What challenges led you to look for a software like BigTime?
Jay: A lot of our challenges with project management sourced from the modular base of Zoho, which was our previous project management software. We kept having to buy certain modules that were supposed to integrate with one another and each one of them had certain subscription and user costs that ultimately drove the price up and we found that those modules didn’t communicate very well with each other and we ended up having a lot of productivity and informational issues.
BigTime: What are the key benefits of using BigTime for your firm?
Jay: BigTime addressed a lot of the issues that we had with our previous project management software. With our previous project management software, we spent two to three months just trying to pull up an unbilled Time & Expense report to correctly represent where we stood as a firm and when we log into BigTime now, we just see the number right there on our dashboard. There’s also an integration between QuickBooks and BigTime that’s incredibly helpful: automatically posting invoices that we send directly to our customer accounts receivable and then a shared client/customer list between QuickBooks and BigTime has really increased the efficiency and just the cohesiveness of the two programs. BigTime also does a great job of integrating project management and firm management where we can see a lot of the numbers that us as a firm management team would want to see but then also allowing our project managers to manage different tasks and projects that we have running for each one of our clients.
BigTime: Which feature have you found most valuable?
Jay: As we transition from our previous project management software to BigTime, support was a really big plus for us. We had a live chat feature within BigTime that at any point we were stuck on an integration piece, we could simply click a button and talk to a support representative right there. They’re always kind, informed, and gave us the path forward, and if we couldn’t figure it out with the chat, then it was easy to jump onto a video call to solve the problem. Not only did we experience incredible support, whether it was through chat or through just phone calls with the support team, when we reached an impasse, our feedback was heard and we’ve offered a number of different suggestions that have either been listened to or are in product development and that’s been really helpful as a firm to know that not only are our pain points heard but they’re are also working toward solutions on our behalf.
BigTime: Where have you seen the biggest change in productivity?
Jay: BigTime has helped us increase efficiency from start to finish. From onboarding a client to actually doing the work for them, drafting the invoice, and sending it to them. Because of the cohesiveness of the program, we’re able to increase our efficiency in how we serve the client and how we bill them.
BigTime: What are your recommendations to others considering BigTime?
Jay: My recommendation for those that are considering BigTime would be to really weigh the option of how well are you going to be supported in your transition to a project management software. I’d say that BigTime has really great and unprecedented customer service, as well as a really great program that can increase your efficiency and representation of where you’re at as a firm and the numbers that you may be looking for.
See how BigTime stacks up to our competitors according to users in the G2 PSA Software Grid Comparison Report.
